Hideyoshi seen here as a young boy hawking faggots of wood in the streets, born to the poorest class of Japan he raised himself to the most powerful position in the state. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 1537 - 1598. Preeminent daimy?, warrior, general, samurai, politician of the Sengoku period and Imperial Regent of Japan. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915